Farnsworth is on the downside of his career, which is why I wasn't doing cartwheels over his acquisition. That said, he does bring toughness, especially when the benches clear. And we could use some of that.
⚾ KC Royals Royals winning more championships
- Thread starter Steve Zissou
- Start date
I haven't been around the TU boards in a while so I thought I would catch up.
1. Farnsworth is awful.
2. See #1. Seriously, this pickup made no sense at the time and it makes less sense now. Farnsworth has been bad everywhere he's been. And just because we're paying him, doesn't mean he has to play. He's directly responsible fo half our losses. On the bright side, it loks like he's solidified a spot in the pecking order behind Cruz, Mahay, and Tejeda.
3. Gordon has the A-Rod injury (torn labrum - not weird Madonna cooties). Out for 10-12 weeks.
4. Starting pitching has been nails (HoRam doesn't count - like Farnsworth he has no business on a Major League roster). Davies is making last September look more and more like the real thing and even Sir Sidney the Rotund has been serviceable. If Hochevar gets his head together Ponson could be fine as a #5.
5. Willie Bloomquist is making me nostalgic for Ross Gload. And I despise Ross Gload.
Finally...the new K. AKA the "K"ougar. I went Opening Day and the next night against the Yanks. It's great. They were able to make it more fan-friendly without compromising any of the things that made it the best place I've ever been to actually watch a game (sight lines, seat angles, etc.) It definitely feels a lot more intimate now with all the outfield seats. I spent a lot time in the outfield and really liked it. It's a first class remodel all the way around (and that's to be expected with all the major sports architecure firms based in KC).
But all that being said...I can't totally embrace it. All I can think about is how Jackson County shot us all in the foot by voting for the remodel and not putting this beauty downtown.
1. Farnsworth is awful.
2. See #1. Seriously, this pickup made no sense at the time and it makes less sense now. Farnsworth has been bad everywhere he's been. And just because we're paying him, doesn't mean he has to play. He's directly responsible fo half our losses. On the bright side, it loks like he's solidified a spot in the pecking order behind Cruz, Mahay, and Tejeda.
3. Gordon has the A-Rod injury (torn labrum - not weird Madonna cooties). Out for 10-12 weeks.
4. Starting pitching has been nails (HoRam doesn't count - like Farnsworth he has no business on a Major League roster). Davies is making last September look more and more like the real thing and even Sir Sidney the Rotund has been serviceable. If Hochevar gets his head together Ponson could be fine as a #5.
5. Willie Bloomquist is making me nostalgic for Ross Gload. And I despise Ross Gload.
Finally...the new K. AKA the "K"ougar. I went Opening Day and the next night against the Yanks. It's great. They were able to make it more fan-friendly without compromising any of the things that made it the best place I've ever been to actually watch a game (sight lines, seat angles, etc.) It definitely feels a lot more intimate now with all the outfield seats. I spent a lot time in the outfield and really liked it. It's a first class remodel all the way around (and that's to be expected with all the major sports architecure firms based in KC).
But all that being said...I can't totally embrace it. All I can think about is how Jackson County shot us all in the foot by voting for the remodel and not putting this beauty downtown.
1 Marlins 11-4 - 1/15 Just look back at Saturday's win over the Nats to see how well things are going. Down 6-0 after two, the Fish don't allow another run, rally to tie it on a Jeremy Hermida HR, then win it in 11 on another Hermida blast. Oh yeah, they pretty much did it again Sunday.
2 Dodgers 10-5 7 2/17 Kuroda goes on DL. Manny doesn't hit first HR until 12 games into season. But somehow this team is rocking an 8-game win streak heading into this week.
3 Blue Jays 11-5 1 3/18 Raise your hand if you expected the Jays to be among the league leaders in team batting average.
4 Padres 9-6 2 4/28 Was Sunday loss to Phils only because closer Heath Bell wasn't available?
5 Cubs 8-5 2 5/7 Taking advantage of bad Cardinal bullpen never felt so good.
6 Mariners 9-6 1 5/30 Team batting average is where you'd expect -- bottom third of the league. But the team ERA is among the league's best.
7 Red Sox 9-6 10 2/17 Lester's win on Sunday was very encouraging and could be a sign.
8 Royals 8-6 11 8/22 Held the homestanding Rangers to nine runs in first three games of series. Not bad.
9 White Sox 8-6 7 9/16 No quittin' in Quentin. He's up to seven homers.
10 Cardinals 10-5 7 3/11 Bullpen has robbed this team of what would've been a great start.
Accurate MLB power rankings
2 Dodgers 10-5 7 2/17 Kuroda goes on DL. Manny doesn't hit first HR until 12 games into season. But somehow this team is rocking an 8-game win streak heading into this week.
3 Blue Jays 11-5 1 3/18 Raise your hand if you expected the Jays to be among the league leaders in team batting average.
4 Padres 9-6 2 4/28 Was Sunday loss to Phils only because closer Heath Bell wasn't available?
5 Cubs 8-5 2 5/7 Taking advantage of bad Cardinal bullpen never felt so good.
6 Mariners 9-6 1 5/30 Team batting average is where you'd expect -- bottom third of the league. But the team ERA is among the league's best.
7 Red Sox 9-6 10 2/17 Lester's win on Sunday was very encouraging and could be a sign.
8 Royals 8-6 11 8/22 Held the homestanding Rangers to nine runs in first three games of series. Not bad.
9 White Sox 8-6 7 9/16 No quittin' in Quentin. He's up to seven homers.
10 Cardinals 10-5 7 3/11 Bullpen has robbed this team of what would've been a great start.
Accurate MLB power rankings
Can't take any power ranking that has a team that just got swept by the Pirates number one serious. The Marlins have done nothing but beat up on the crap NL EAST. The wildcald will once again come out of the Central in the NL.
KANSAS CITY -- It was almost a perfect Friday night at Kauffman Stadium. Zack Greinke pitched a three-hit, 6-1 victory over the Tigers. A sellout crowd of 36,363 on a pleasant 79-degree evening urged him on. And by the time the Royals got home, they stood alone in first place.
The only flaw came when the Tigers scored in the fifth inning, ending Greinke's string of scoreless innings at 38. Well, that and the postgame fireworks being canceled because of high winds. But there was enough popping during the game to keep the fans vastly entertained.
Greinke was magnificent as he pitched his second straight complete game and boosted his record to 4-0. He struck out 10, boosting his total to 36 in 29 innings. And the Tigers' run scored on an error, so his ERA is still 0.00.
"It's just a magnificent job again -- that's all you can say," manager Trey Hillman said. "Just outstanding."
Greinke received all the runs he needed early. Mark Teahen belted a two-run homer off Tigers rookie Rick Porcello in the first inning, a drive into the left-field bullpen.
An unlikely basher, Alberto Callaspo, led off the second inning with a drive into the right-field Party Porch. It was the first home run of his Major League career after 441 at-bats (484 plate appearances), the longest such drought by any active player.
"I don't know, I was just lucky," Callaspo said. "I feel great, I was just fighting for a long time. Finally, I got it."
The Royals picked up two more runs in the fifth on a high throw past home plate by Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera. Coco Crisp knocked in the sixth run in the seventh.
It was Greinke, though, who was the darling of the jam-packed ballpark. The atmosphere was electric.
"It was incredible -- I don't know why there were so many people here tonight," he said.
Greinke knew about the popular fireworks draw but also thought there must have been some sort of giveaway. Nope, although it was Buck Night. Perhaps, it was suggested, many of the fans came just to see him pitch.
"That's probably not the case -- I hope it's not the case to tell the truth," Greinke said.
Well, he's too modest. This guy is on top of the American League in wins, strikeouts and ERA. That's pitching's Triple Crown.
And Greinke is a fine fielder, too, as he showed by almost stopping that one Tigers run from scoring after shortstop Mike Aviles' throwing error.
Gerald Laird led off the Tigers' fifth with a double to left field. Brandon Inge struck out, and Josh Anderson flied out to center field. Crisp threw to Aviles, whose relay struck Laird sliding into third base.
The ball bounced away, but Greinke, backing up third, made a quick retrieval as Laird trucked for home. Greinke's throw might have been in time, but the ball got out of catcher Miguel Olivo's mitt, and Laird slid in safely.
"I'm not sure what [umpire] Dana [DeMuth] would have called at the plate, but it was going to be a really close play if that ball hadn't gotten out of Miggy's mitt," Hillman said.
Olivo wasn't so sure.
"I tried to catch it and swing [for a tag], but I think he was past the plate," he said.
Greinke took it right in stride. His streak had included 24 innings this year and 14 at the end of last season.
"It happens, that's baseball," he said. "It's aggressive baserunning, aggressive fielding and it's just baseball. You can't predict anything. I got out of jams I shouldn't have got out of, and then they score on a ball that maybe they shouldn't have scored on. It evens out at the end."
Anyway, after the streak-busting run, Greinke walked back toward the mound with a big smile on his face.
"That was almost the best play of my entire life," he said, "but I didn't quite get it. That's what makes it exciting pitching out there -- doing stuff like that actually. And after that happened, I just got a big boost of energy."
Did he ever. Greinke mowed down the next 13 batters, making it 15 straight outs to finish the game. He went the distance at Texas last Saturday, too, so he became the first Royals pitcher to throw back-to-back complete games since, oddly enough, Jamey Wright during his first stint with the Royals in 2003.
"Mine was a loss and a win -- it wasn't two wins," Wright said, pointing out he lost to the Angels and then beat the Tigers.
He was out in the bullpen as Greinke closed in on his victory.
"I got up to throw in the ninth, and I threw one ball and I just sat there because I thought, 'I don't want to miss anything, I want to keep watching,' " Wright said.
It was something to watch.
"He dominated us," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland. "He looks like he's been pitching for 15 years. It took him some time, but he looks like a polished, veteran pitcher right now."
"It's fun to watch," Teahen said. "Maybe it was just the energy, but he looked unhittable. I'm just glad he's on our team."
Greinke deflected the credit, lavishing praise on pitching coach Bob McClure and Olivo, his catcher. Olivo appreciated it but returned the compliment.
"I think he's going to be a Cy Young pitcher someday," Olivo said. "I hope this year."
Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
The only flaw came when the Tigers scored in the fifth inning, ending Greinke's string of scoreless innings at 38. Well, that and the postgame fireworks being canceled because of high winds. But there was enough popping during the game to keep the fans vastly entertained.
Greinke was magnificent as he pitched his second straight complete game and boosted his record to 4-0. He struck out 10, boosting his total to 36 in 29 innings. And the Tigers' run scored on an error, so his ERA is still 0.00.
"It's just a magnificent job again -- that's all you can say," manager Trey Hillman said. "Just outstanding."
Greinke received all the runs he needed early. Mark Teahen belted a two-run homer off Tigers rookie Rick Porcello in the first inning, a drive into the left-field bullpen.
An unlikely basher, Alberto Callaspo, led off the second inning with a drive into the right-field Party Porch. It was the first home run of his Major League career after 441 at-bats (484 plate appearances), the longest such drought by any active player.
"I don't know, I was just lucky," Callaspo said. "I feel great, I was just fighting for a long time. Finally, I got it."
The Royals picked up two more runs in the fifth on a high throw past home plate by Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera. Coco Crisp knocked in the sixth run in the seventh.
It was Greinke, though, who was the darling of the jam-packed ballpark. The atmosphere was electric.
"It was incredible -- I don't know why there were so many people here tonight," he said.
Greinke knew about the popular fireworks draw but also thought there must have been some sort of giveaway. Nope, although it was Buck Night. Perhaps, it was suggested, many of the fans came just to see him pitch.
"That's probably not the case -- I hope it's not the case to tell the truth," Greinke said.
Well, he's too modest. This guy is on top of the American League in wins, strikeouts and ERA. That's pitching's Triple Crown.
And Greinke is a fine fielder, too, as he showed by almost stopping that one Tigers run from scoring after shortstop Mike Aviles' throwing error.
Gerald Laird led off the Tigers' fifth with a double to left field. Brandon Inge struck out, and Josh Anderson flied out to center field. Crisp threw to Aviles, whose relay struck Laird sliding into third base.
The ball bounced away, but Greinke, backing up third, made a quick retrieval as Laird trucked for home. Greinke's throw might have been in time, but the ball got out of catcher Miguel Olivo's mitt, and Laird slid in safely.
"I'm not sure what [umpire] Dana [DeMuth] would have called at the plate, but it was going to be a really close play if that ball hadn't gotten out of Miggy's mitt," Hillman said.
Olivo wasn't so sure.
"I tried to catch it and swing [for a tag], but I think he was past the plate," he said.
Greinke took it right in stride. His streak had included 24 innings this year and 14 at the end of last season.
"It happens, that's baseball," he said. "It's aggressive baserunning, aggressive fielding and it's just baseball. You can't predict anything. I got out of jams I shouldn't have got out of, and then they score on a ball that maybe they shouldn't have scored on. It evens out at the end."
Anyway, after the streak-busting run, Greinke walked back toward the mound with a big smile on his face.
"That was almost the best play of my entire life," he said, "but I didn't quite get it. That's what makes it exciting pitching out there -- doing stuff like that actually. And after that happened, I just got a big boost of energy."
Did he ever. Greinke mowed down the next 13 batters, making it 15 straight outs to finish the game. He went the distance at Texas last Saturday, too, so he became the first Royals pitcher to throw back-to-back complete games since, oddly enough, Jamey Wright during his first stint with the Royals in 2003.
"Mine was a loss and a win -- it wasn't two wins," Wright said, pointing out he lost to the Angels and then beat the Tigers.
He was out in the bullpen as Greinke closed in on his victory.
"I got up to throw in the ninth, and I threw one ball and I just sat there because I thought, 'I don't want to miss anything, I want to keep watching,' " Wright said.
It was something to watch.
"He dominated us," said Tigers manager Jim Leyland. "He looks like he's been pitching for 15 years. It took him some time, but he looks like a polished, veteran pitcher right now."
"It's fun to watch," Teahen said. "Maybe it was just the energy, but he looked unhittable. I'm just glad he's on our team."
Greinke deflected the credit, lavishing praise on pitching coach Bob McClure and Olivo, his catcher. Olivo appreciated it but returned the compliment.
"I think he's going to be a Cy Young pitcher someday," Olivo said. "I hope this year."
Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
I was in Kansas City for some races and was able to go to the game, at least I can say I went to a Royals Sell-out game, not too many people can say that.
We can't score runs b/c lack of bats, especially with Gordon out. Aviles has the most god-awful stance and it shows b/c he's 1 for his last 20-plus. Shame to waste another solid outing from Fatty Ponson.
Hey, I know one of my fellow Royals fans will knows this, couldn't remember his name the other day when I was trying to think of it. Who was the guy who played rightfield a few years ago, built like a tank, had toiled down in Mexico I think and probably partook of horse steroids to get as thick as he was.
Hey, I know one of my fellow Royals fans will knows this, couldn't remember his name the other day when I was trying to think of it. Who was the guy who played rightfield a few years ago, built like a tank, had toiled down in Mexico I think and probably partook of horse steroids to get as thick as he was.
The last two weekends that the Royals were at home, Cox Cable in Tulsa carried the Friday, Saturday and Sunday games on Channel 78, which is normally a shopping channel. The games weren't listed on the Cox program guide but they were listed in the Tulsa World broadcast highlights (second page of the sports section, left-hand columns). Could it be that Cox is carrying the same package of Royals TV broadcasts that the ORU TV station carried a couple of years ago? Fans can only hope.
Posted on Tue, Apr. 28, 2009
Royals’ Greinke can’t hide from success
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
Zack Greinke is not used to this. You can see that. He’s not uncomfortable, exactly, but he’s not entirely comfortable with this best-pitcher-in-baseball business.
You can see this because he is around the corner, stuck to the wall of a hallway away from the buzz of the Royals clubhouse. Someone asks what he’s doing.
“I’m just hiding,” he says.
He smiles. There is no hiding, not really, and Greinke knows this. Dating back to last year, he hasn’t given up an earned run in six starts ? that ties Orel Hershiser and Don Drysdale for the longest streak in baseball history.
Greinke is the hottest story in baseball right now. He is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the sports front of a national newspaper and featured on two national Web sites. Keep this up, and more attention is coming.
The Tigers scored an unearned run on Greinke in his last outing, the only blemish on an otherwise perfect beginning. He leads the American League in wins (four), complete games (two), strikeouts (36) and, of course, ERA (0.00).
He’s going national, and he just might take the Royals with him ? the casual fan’s window into Kansas City’s building baseball excitement.
There isn’t a story in baseball better than the one we know so well here ? the phenom turned bust, the pitching prodigy who walked away from baseball and came back, who once wondered if he’d rather mow lawns but now finds himself as the best pitcher on the planet and the face of what Royals fans hope can be their best season in more than 20 years.
“I’m not paying attention to any of that nonsense,” Greinke says. “I don’t hear much about it. I haven’t even paid any attention to it.”
That puts him in a shrinking minority.
? ? ?
Zack Greinke threw virtually nothing but fastballs through the first five innings of his last start. That’s it. Fastball after fastball after fastball, only the location changing, and the Tigers did nothing with it.
After they scored the unearned run, Greinke seemed to feel challenged, so he mixed in his curveball, an improved change-up and a devastating slider and retired the last 15 batters he faced. Miguel Cabrera, the league’s leading hitter, struck out twice ? once on a 96-mph fastball, and once on an 87-mph slider that broke eight inches.
The performance came in front of a sellout crowd that gave him two separate standing ovations. The Star wondered in the morning paper whether it was the night that baseball became relevant again in Kansas City. General manager Dayton Moore calls it “by far” his best night with the Royals.
The gushing only begins there.
“He must’ve learned a lot because this is not the same guy I was hitting against before I got here,” outfielder Jose Guillen says.
“I’ve never played behind a pitcher in the minor leagues, major leagues, even Little League, who’s done what he’s doing,” outfielder Coco Crisp says.
“Uh-uh, never seen it,” pitching coach Bob McClure says.
“Maybe Roger Clemens in his day, Nolan Ryan in his day, or Randy Johnson in his day,” hitting coach Kevin Seitzer says.
This is where Greinke finds himself. He is the best in the game. Not just “good for a Royal” like Mark Redman, or “one of the best,” like Joakim Soria. No. Greinke, right now, is the very best pitcher in all of baseball.
Mark Grudzielanek won the Gold Glove a few years ago, but the Royals haven’t had something like this since David Cone won the Cy Young in 1994 or George Brett won the batting title in 1990.
“It’s just a combination of things that go really, really well for you all at the same time,” says Hershiser, baseball’s record holder with 59 consecutive scoreless innings. “You might make your pitch in your spot 10 or 15 percent more than you usually make, and that’s a huge difference.”
Greinke won’t keep this up, of course. He will give up runs, home runs, heck, he’ll even lose games. But when McClure talks of a better understanding of opposing hitters, and when Greinke talks of a growing confidence, you start to wonder if the Royals are getting a steal for that four-year, $38 million extension Greinke signed in the offseason.
And that’s the part that has the people around the Royals so excited. If this is what Greinke is capable of, he’ll be doing it in Kansas City for a long time.
It’s the kind of thing that can change a team’s national image.
? ? ?
The Royals haven’t had this kind of attention in years. Fans will want to know if Greinke can throw another complete game, another shutout, heck, maybe even a no-hitter. He’s in that kind of place right now.
John Buck has caught Greinke 94 times, and they’ve spent countless hours in clubhouses, on benches, on buses and in planes. Buck smiles when he calls his friend “unique.” He means it in a good way, and he means it both on the field and off.
Who else would announce he was about to throw a 50-mph curveball? Who else would quick-pitch Bernie Williams? Who else would have $38 million coming but still wear free T-shirts because, well, they’re free?
Buck sees the symbolism here. If people are getting to know the Royals through Greinke, then they’re getting to know the Royals right.
“He is who we are,” Buck says. “He’s not real flashy, we’re not real flashy. We’re not out in the middle of it, we’re not a big-market team, but we’re confident, and we’re better. I don’t know if he would do good in a big scene. He’s kind of the epitome of what we are and what the city of Kansas City is.”
A dozen or so reporters surrounded Greinke’s locker on Tuesday. They asked him everything you’d expect. They asked him about the streak, about his successes, and about his struggles.
Greinke says he’s just trying to prove to himself how good he can be.
He knows he’s smiling more this year, and says it’s because it’s the first time he’s felt like the team “can do something, which helps everything.”
He’ll go retrospective for a bit, saying he feels like he can get most batters out ? no matter what ? if he makes his pitches, appreciating how long it took him to get to this point.
He’s also self-aware enough to know he’s getting a lot of breaks right now. Last time out, for instance, he threw the exact pitch in the exact location that he knew he wasn’t supposed to throw to Carlos Guillen ? who swung through for a strikeout.
There is a pause. Greinke thinks about that for a second. In a way, it’s encouraging because he knows he can still get better, and now it’s your turn to think for a second: the guy hasn’t given up an earned run all year, and he’s dead sure he can still get better.
Maybe he’ll get used to this someday. But in more than one way, he won’t ever be impressed by any of it.
“We’re not even a month in,” Greinke says. “Not even a month. Everyone has hot streaks. (Mike) Aviles was the best player for a week a couple times last year. (Brian) Bannister was the best player for a month a while back. The good players do it all year long, and then all year long the next year, and the next year after that.
“The key isn’t one week or one month. You have to do it longer.”
To reach Sam Mellinger, national baseball reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4365 or send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com
Royals’ Greinke can’t hide from success
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
Zack Greinke is not used to this. You can see that. He’s not uncomfortable, exactly, but he’s not entirely comfortable with this best-pitcher-in-baseball business.
You can see this because he is around the corner, stuck to the wall of a hallway away from the buzz of the Royals clubhouse. Someone asks what he’s doing.
“I’m just hiding,” he says.
He smiles. There is no hiding, not really, and Greinke knows this. Dating back to last year, he hasn’t given up an earned run in six starts ? that ties Orel Hershiser and Don Drysdale for the longest streak in baseball history.
Greinke is the hottest story in baseball right now. He is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the sports front of a national newspaper and featured on two national Web sites. Keep this up, and more attention is coming.
The Tigers scored an unearned run on Greinke in his last outing, the only blemish on an otherwise perfect beginning. He leads the American League in wins (four), complete games (two), strikeouts (36) and, of course, ERA (0.00).
He’s going national, and he just might take the Royals with him ? the casual fan’s window into Kansas City’s building baseball excitement.
There isn’t a story in baseball better than the one we know so well here ? the phenom turned bust, the pitching prodigy who walked away from baseball and came back, who once wondered if he’d rather mow lawns but now finds himself as the best pitcher on the planet and the face of what Royals fans hope can be their best season in more than 20 years.
“I’m not paying attention to any of that nonsense,” Greinke says. “I don’t hear much about it. I haven’t even paid any attention to it.”
That puts him in a shrinking minority.
? ? ?
Zack Greinke threw virtually nothing but fastballs through the first five innings of his last start. That’s it. Fastball after fastball after fastball, only the location changing, and the Tigers did nothing with it.
After they scored the unearned run, Greinke seemed to feel challenged, so he mixed in his curveball, an improved change-up and a devastating slider and retired the last 15 batters he faced. Miguel Cabrera, the league’s leading hitter, struck out twice ? once on a 96-mph fastball, and once on an 87-mph slider that broke eight inches.
The performance came in front of a sellout crowd that gave him two separate standing ovations. The Star wondered in the morning paper whether it was the night that baseball became relevant again in Kansas City. General manager Dayton Moore calls it “by far” his best night with the Royals.
The gushing only begins there.
“He must’ve learned a lot because this is not the same guy I was hitting against before I got here,” outfielder Jose Guillen says.
“I’ve never played behind a pitcher in the minor leagues, major leagues, even Little League, who’s done what he’s doing,” outfielder Coco Crisp says.
“Uh-uh, never seen it,” pitching coach Bob McClure says.
“Maybe Roger Clemens in his day, Nolan Ryan in his day, or Randy Johnson in his day,” hitting coach Kevin Seitzer says.
This is where Greinke finds himself. He is the best in the game. Not just “good for a Royal” like Mark Redman, or “one of the best,” like Joakim Soria. No. Greinke, right now, is the very best pitcher in all of baseball.
Mark Grudzielanek won the Gold Glove a few years ago, but the Royals haven’t had something like this since David Cone won the Cy Young in 1994 or George Brett won the batting title in 1990.
“It’s just a combination of things that go really, really well for you all at the same time,” says Hershiser, baseball’s record holder with 59 consecutive scoreless innings. “You might make your pitch in your spot 10 or 15 percent more than you usually make, and that’s a huge difference.”
Greinke won’t keep this up, of course. He will give up runs, home runs, heck, he’ll even lose games. But when McClure talks of a better understanding of opposing hitters, and when Greinke talks of a growing confidence, you start to wonder if the Royals are getting a steal for that four-year, $38 million extension Greinke signed in the offseason.
And that’s the part that has the people around the Royals so excited. If this is what Greinke is capable of, he’ll be doing it in Kansas City for a long time.
It’s the kind of thing that can change a team’s national image.
? ? ?
The Royals haven’t had this kind of attention in years. Fans will want to know if Greinke can throw another complete game, another shutout, heck, maybe even a no-hitter. He’s in that kind of place right now.
John Buck has caught Greinke 94 times, and they’ve spent countless hours in clubhouses, on benches, on buses and in planes. Buck smiles when he calls his friend “unique.” He means it in a good way, and he means it both on the field and off.
Who else would announce he was about to throw a 50-mph curveball? Who else would quick-pitch Bernie Williams? Who else would have $38 million coming but still wear free T-shirts because, well, they’re free?
Buck sees the symbolism here. If people are getting to know the Royals through Greinke, then they’re getting to know the Royals right.
“He is who we are,” Buck says. “He’s not real flashy, we’re not real flashy. We’re not out in the middle of it, we’re not a big-market team, but we’re confident, and we’re better. I don’t know if he would do good in a big scene. He’s kind of the epitome of what we are and what the city of Kansas City is.”
A dozen or so reporters surrounded Greinke’s locker on Tuesday. They asked him everything you’d expect. They asked him about the streak, about his successes, and about his struggles.
Greinke says he’s just trying to prove to himself how good he can be.
He knows he’s smiling more this year, and says it’s because it’s the first time he’s felt like the team “can do something, which helps everything.”
He’ll go retrospective for a bit, saying he feels like he can get most batters out ? no matter what ? if he makes his pitches, appreciating how long it took him to get to this point.
He’s also self-aware enough to know he’s getting a lot of breaks right now. Last time out, for instance, he threw the exact pitch in the exact location that he knew he wasn’t supposed to throw to Carlos Guillen ? who swung through for a strikeout.
There is a pause. Greinke thinks about that for a second. In a way, it’s encouraging because he knows he can still get better, and now it’s your turn to think for a second: the guy hasn’t given up an earned run all year, and he’s dead sure he can still get better.
Maybe he’ll get used to this someday. But in more than one way, he won’t ever be impressed by any of it.
“We’re not even a month in,” Greinke says. “Not even a month. Everyone has hot streaks. (Mike) Aviles was the best player for a week a couple times last year. (Brian) Bannister was the best player for a month a while back. The good players do it all year long, and then all year long the next year, and the next year after that.
“The key isn’t one week or one month. You have to do it longer.”
To reach Sam Mellinger, national baseball reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4365 or send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com
That's fantastic. I remember when got the call-up in '04 (maybe '05), I drove up to watch a Sunday afternoon game of interleague against the Mets. I had to watch this 19- or 20-year-old do his thing against Glavine. I can't even remember who won that day. Just happy that Zack is finally at a point that most of us knew he was capable of.
Tokyo Yakult Swallows
For the 2007 season, Guiel signed with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows of Japan's Central League, hitting 35 home runs with 79 RBI. In 2008, he hit only .200 was limited to 79 games due to an elbow injury. After the 2008 season, he re-signed with the Swallows for 2009.
Greinke's success boosts all of the Royals
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
It’s an hour or so before Zack Greinke’s first pitch, and Billy Butler is talking to a teammate.
“I’m guaranteeing a shutout tonight,” Butler says. “What do you think?”
The teammate shakes his head.
“You can’t guarantee a shutout,” he says. “I don’t care what it is.”
Butler holds his ground. He is guaranteeing a shutout.
“You know why?” he says. “Because I’m playing pretty (expletive) good defense right now.”
Butler’s words are more for impact than boast. He wants a laugh, and he gets it. But there is a point here: the Greinke-mania is giving the rest of the team boosted confidence, and the result just might introduce the other players to a bigger audience.
Greinke gets the attention and the standing ovations ? four of them during the Royals’ 3-0 win over Chicago at Kauffman Stadium on Monday ? but there is more to what looks like an interesting baseball summer in Kansas City.
When people get to know this Royals team over the next few weeks and months, they will find more to like than just the phenom pitcher.
You might be familiar enough with Gil Meche ? he actually started opening day, remember? ? and Joakim Soria, the Mexicutioner. But what about Coco Crisp?
He has the name, of course, and a lengthy highlight’s worth of catches in center field and 17 walks. That’s a pace of more than 100, which no Royal has done since Kevin Seitzer ? fitting because Seitzer is now the hitting coach and generally given a healthy dose of the credit for the Royals’ increased patience.
What about David DeJesus? He has the ladies’ man reputation and on Monday hit an 0-2 pitch into the Royals’ bullpen for a home run, and with Greinke on the mound, it was the most action those relievers got all night.
What about Mike Jacobs? He and his gelled-up blonde hair lead the team with four home runs, and there are people in the Royals’ clubhouse who will tell you he brought a contagious swagger to this team.
There are others. Alberto Callaspo is hitting .378. Mark Teahen is the team comedian and hitting .300 with three home runs since taking over for the injured Alex Gordon at third base.
Butler had an RBI single on Monday, one more reason to believe he’s coming out of a terrible season-opening slump. He also had quite a night at first base.
There was a sharp grounder by Scott Podsednik that went off Butler’s chest and was ruled a double, a highlight scoop of a throw by Callaspo that Greinke called “the best play of his life,” and then a glove flip to Greinke that turned out fine but Butler admits was a mistake.
“That play was impossible,” Greinke said. “It looked pretty easy, probably, watching it. He made that as tough on me as he could possibly make it.”
So it’s more than just Greinke that’s interesting. After Monday’s game, Crisp talked about how baseball fans got to know Joe Maddon and B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria better as last season progressed and the Rays kept winning. Maybe that can happen around the Royals this summer.
There was a walk-up crowd of more than 6,000 on Monday ? two to three times more than average. ESPN showed some of Greinke’s performance during a rain delay of its scheduled game. People are paying more attention now, here in Kansas City and beyond.
Now comes the interesting part, when the Royals’ performances and personalities shape what this new and bigger audience sees. Butler, done with the jokes now, has a suggestion.
“I want people to see our intensity,” he said. “I haven’t seen everybody play every single day, but it’s going to be tough for me to think if I watch the season up to this point say anybody’s played harder than we have.”
To reach Sam Mellinger, baseball reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4365 or send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com.
?
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
It’s an hour or so before Zack Greinke’s first pitch, and Billy Butler is talking to a teammate.
“I’m guaranteeing a shutout tonight,” Butler says. “What do you think?”
The teammate shakes his head.
“You can’t guarantee a shutout,” he says. “I don’t care what it is.”
Butler holds his ground. He is guaranteeing a shutout.
“You know why?” he says. “Because I’m playing pretty (expletive) good defense right now.”
Butler’s words are more for impact than boast. He wants a laugh, and he gets it. But there is a point here: the Greinke-mania is giving the rest of the team boosted confidence, and the result just might introduce the other players to a bigger audience.
Greinke gets the attention and the standing ovations ? four of them during the Royals’ 3-0 win over Chicago at Kauffman Stadium on Monday ? but there is more to what looks like an interesting baseball summer in Kansas City.
When people get to know this Royals team over the next few weeks and months, they will find more to like than just the phenom pitcher.
You might be familiar enough with Gil Meche ? he actually started opening day, remember? ? and Joakim Soria, the Mexicutioner. But what about Coco Crisp?
He has the name, of course, and a lengthy highlight’s worth of catches in center field and 17 walks. That’s a pace of more than 100, which no Royal has done since Kevin Seitzer ? fitting because Seitzer is now the hitting coach and generally given a healthy dose of the credit for the Royals’ increased patience.
What about David DeJesus? He has the ladies’ man reputation and on Monday hit an 0-2 pitch into the Royals’ bullpen for a home run, and with Greinke on the mound, it was the most action those relievers got all night.
What about Mike Jacobs? He and his gelled-up blonde hair lead the team with four home runs, and there are people in the Royals’ clubhouse who will tell you he brought a contagious swagger to this team.
There are others. Alberto Callaspo is hitting .378. Mark Teahen is the team comedian and hitting .300 with three home runs since taking over for the injured Alex Gordon at third base.
Butler had an RBI single on Monday, one more reason to believe he’s coming out of a terrible season-opening slump. He also had quite a night at first base.
There was a sharp grounder by Scott Podsednik that went off Butler’s chest and was ruled a double, a highlight scoop of a throw by Callaspo that Greinke called “the best play of his life,” and then a glove flip to Greinke that turned out fine but Butler admits was a mistake.
“That play was impossible,” Greinke said. “It looked pretty easy, probably, watching it. He made that as tough on me as he could possibly make it.”
So it’s more than just Greinke that’s interesting. After Monday’s game, Crisp talked about how baseball fans got to know Joe Maddon and B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria better as last season progressed and the Rays kept winning. Maybe that can happen around the Royals this summer.
There was a walk-up crowd of more than 6,000 on Monday ? two to three times more than average. ESPN showed some of Greinke’s performance during a rain delay of its scheduled game. People are paying more attention now, here in Kansas City and beyond.
Now comes the interesting part, when the Royals’ performances and personalities shape what this new and bigger audience sees. Butler, done with the jokes now, has a suggestion.
“I want people to see our intensity,” he said. “I haven’t seen everybody play every single day, but it’s going to be tough for me to think if I watch the season up to this point say anybody’s played harder than we have.”
To reach Sam Mellinger, baseball reporter for The Star, call 816-234-4365 or send e-mail to smellinger@kcstar.com.
?
HUGE win last night! I fell asleep in the bottom of the 10th, just following on gametracker. Let's take these two games from Seattle before we head out for a five-game roadie. The one stat that stood out was DeJesus' 0-fer and SEVEN LOB. Good Lord, son, swing the bat.
Great read by Rany
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Game On.
(Remember to tune in this evening at 7 PM; listen live at 810whb.com. Royals’ Assistant GM Dean Taylor is scheduled to be our guest this evening.)
I’ve always felt that for all the advantages that come with having access to a team, in the sense of being a beat writer or a reporter or at least having graduated from J-school, the biggest advantage of my lack of access ? of being an outsider ? is the luxury of being able to take a step back from the day-to-day minutiae of baseball, and analyze things from a distance. Perspective is hard to obtain from up close.
Well, this year I’ve started to shed the “outsider” label just a little. It’s been a tremendous opportunity to have a radio show and to have access to people inside the game. But it’s also made me so focused on keeping up with every Trey Hillman decision and the ebb and flow of every single game, every single day, that maybe I’ve been missing the big picture just a little bit.
So I took a step back after last night’s game and realized: dammit, we’re good. The Royals are 17-11, which as Bob Dutton pointed out is the first time the Royals are six games* over .500 since the end of the 2003 season. As Will McDonald points out, the Royals could lose their next 36 games in a row and still be ahead of their pace from 2006, just three years ago.
*: “Games over .500” is a very vague term in the way it’s used; some people will say a team that’s 82-80 is two games over .500, while others will say they’re one game over .500. The second answer is technically true, because a team that’s 82-80 is one game ahead of a team that’s exactly .500 (81-81). However, the first answer is usually what people mean. My personal method is to use “games over .500” to denote half-games ? in other words, (wins ? losses). When I want the second meaning, I’ll use “full games over .500”. At 17-11, the Royals are three full games over .500, which means if they play .500 the rest of the season, they’ll finish with (81 + 3 =) 84 wins.
All the hair-pulling over Trey Hillman’s decisions in April obscured the fact that the most important job for any manager isn’t pushing the right buttons in the late innings, it’s putting his players in position to succeed in the first place. And the best manager can’t win without the horses. The Royals have the horses. They lead the league in runs allowed. They rank only 9th in runs scored, but given that they’re fifth in the league in slugging average and in on-base percentage, they have the makings of at least a league-average offense. The Royals have won with less.
Zack Greinke gets all the press, and deservedly so. But the Royals have played better than .500 ball in the games that The Big Grein does not start. They lead the American League in Beane Count, a statistic that Rob Neyer invented years ago that distills a team’s performance to the two most immutable categories of the game, homers and walks. And yes, Rob’s put one foot on the bandwagon.
For all the talk about how the Royals have been winning games they never would have won in the past, the fact that the Royals won a couple of close games wasn’t definitive proof that they were a good team. Those of you who have been reading for a while already know this, but the hallmark of a good team is not the ability to win the close games ? it’s the ability to win the blowouts. Winning one-run games is mostly a matter of luck; winning the eight-run games is mostly a matter of talent.
What was meaningful about the win against the Twins on Saturday, or against the White Sox on Tuesday, wasn’t that it they were the kinds of wins that characterized good teams; it was that they weren’t the kinds of losses that characterized bad teams. Specifically, bad Royals teams. More specifically, pretty much every Royals team from 1995 to 2007.
So we had, I thought, established over the last week that the Royals were not a bad team. But I looked at last night’s game as a litmus test for whether the Royals were a good team. Against another first-place team that seemed to be playing over its head, against a soft-tossing finesse pitcher who has sucked pretty much non-stop since the end of 2007, a good team would bust out the whooping sticks early and often.
Carlos Silva is exactly the kind of control artist who always seems to throw his best games against the Royals: before last night, he had a 4.10 ERA in 14 career starts against KC, and had walked just five batters in 83 career innings.
The verdict? The Royals grounded into two double plays and left five men on base in the first four innings ? and still led 8-0. Sidney Ponson did his best Brian Bannister impression, and the three worst pitchers on the Royals’ roster held the Mariners to one run.
And that’s why I’m here to tell you: game on. This team is good, this team is for real, and it’s time to commit fully and hang on tight all season long. I’m not saying the Royals are going to win the division. But I’m saying that from this moment on, every game has playoff implications.
“Wait a minute,” some of you are saying, “how is this any different than 2003?” To which I can only say, “I knew 2003. 2003 was a friend of mine. This team, sir, is no 2003.”
Y’all remember 2003, don’t you? Tony Pena tossing a coin to decide whether Runelvys Hernandez or Jeremy Affeldt would start on Opening Day? Ken Harvey hitting walkoff homers? Mike MacDougal walking a tightrope every ninth inning? Everything about that season was surreal from the start. NO ONE thought, prior to the season, that the Royals had any hope of contention. Then they started 9-0, and 16-3, and even then the feeling wasn’t “we’re going to win”, it was “we’re winning!” The emotions that I recall were more about living in the moment than in expecting the winning ways to continue. They continued a lot longer than we expected, and when the Royals went into the All-Star break leading the division by seven games, you could actually start to believe that the magic might last into October. But it was still clear that they were winning with magic.
This year, even before the season began people around the game were talking about the Royals as a sleeper contender, to the point where it actually got annoying ? the New York Times predicted the Royals to win the division. Those predictions weren’t made because people thought the Royals were well-versed in sorcery; they were made because people thought the Royals had a lot of talent.
Which they do. The Royals’ second-best starter is better than anyone in the rotation in 2003 ? or in any year from 1998 to 2006. Their closer is one of the very best in baseball. Their leadoff hitter has a .363 OBP and catches everything in centerfield. Their DH does little but hit homers ? but he does hit homers. Their first baseman is hitting .276/.370/.425 and is just scratching the surface of his potential. Their second baseman, batting 7th, is hitting .359 ? and while no one thinks he’s a .359 hitter, a lot of people think he’s a .310 hitter. They have Zack Greinke. They have a pitcher who’s 5-0, 1.13 in Omaha and can’t break into the rotation. None of their players are pregnant.
The Royals are 17-11, and they’ve outscored their opponents by 30 runs, which projects to a…17-11 record. They’re winning even with one of their best players on the DL. In the last week, they’ve won games by bashing 11 extra-base hits around the park; by scoring eight runs in five innings off a pair of Quadruple-A pitchers (who were both sent down to Triple-A immediately after the game); by outlasting the Twins on the road with an 11th-inning rally triggered by four walks; by storming back from a 4-0 deficit after six innings with a five-run seventh; by rallying from a 5-1 deficit to the White Sox to win in 11 innings, even after the home plate umpire blew a call on the potential go-ahead run in regulation; and beaten Carlos Silva like the rented mule he is.
Oh, and somewhere in between Greinke threw another shutout.
And in the process of writing this, the Royals have won their sixth straight game. A night after their fifth starter allowed one run in 7.1 innings, their fourth starter throws six shutout innings, striking out seven. Tomorrow the nominal ace of the staff takes the mound. And then the day after that, The Greatest Show in Baseball rolls into Anaheim.
So yeah: it’s on. It’s most definitely on. The Royals are 18-11, they lead the division by 2.5 games, and unlike 2003, I’m not even excited about how they have played. I’m excited by how I think they will play. I think they will play well enough to contend, and maybe even win, the division. I think that it’s going to be the most enjoyable summer for Kansas City sports in a few decades. I think that many of the 32,713 kids who came out to the park this afternoon will be fans for life.
I think that the city is ready to embrace this team. Last night’s game garnered a 7.5 rating, the highest in the history of Fox Sports Kansas City. The previous highest-rated game was…the game before, with a 6.4 rating.
I think that we’re going to have a lot of fun over the next few months. I think that at some point, someone is going to see me walking around suburban Chicago with my Greinke jersey on and accuse me of being a bandwagon fan. I think that my wife is going to feel like a single mother in late September and October.
I think all of this will happen, but I don’t know. But I know one thing.
It’s on. It’s most definitely on.
This post was edited on 5/8 9:52 AM by Steve Zissou
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Game On.
(Remember to tune in this evening at 7 PM; listen live at 810whb.com. Royals’ Assistant GM Dean Taylor is scheduled to be our guest this evening.)
I’ve always felt that for all the advantages that come with having access to a team, in the sense of being a beat writer or a reporter or at least having graduated from J-school, the biggest advantage of my lack of access ? of being an outsider ? is the luxury of being able to take a step back from the day-to-day minutiae of baseball, and analyze things from a distance. Perspective is hard to obtain from up close.
Well, this year I’ve started to shed the “outsider” label just a little. It’s been a tremendous opportunity to have a radio show and to have access to people inside the game. But it’s also made me so focused on keeping up with every Trey Hillman decision and the ebb and flow of every single game, every single day, that maybe I’ve been missing the big picture just a little bit.
So I took a step back after last night’s game and realized: dammit, we’re good. The Royals are 17-11, which as Bob Dutton pointed out is the first time the Royals are six games* over .500 since the end of the 2003 season. As Will McDonald points out, the Royals could lose their next 36 games in a row and still be ahead of their pace from 2006, just three years ago.
*: “Games over .500” is a very vague term in the way it’s used; some people will say a team that’s 82-80 is two games over .500, while others will say they’re one game over .500. The second answer is technically true, because a team that’s 82-80 is one game ahead of a team that’s exactly .500 (81-81). However, the first answer is usually what people mean. My personal method is to use “games over .500” to denote half-games ? in other words, (wins ? losses). When I want the second meaning, I’ll use “full games over .500”. At 17-11, the Royals are three full games over .500, which means if they play .500 the rest of the season, they’ll finish with (81 + 3 =) 84 wins.
All the hair-pulling over Trey Hillman’s decisions in April obscured the fact that the most important job for any manager isn’t pushing the right buttons in the late innings, it’s putting his players in position to succeed in the first place. And the best manager can’t win without the horses. The Royals have the horses. They lead the league in runs allowed. They rank only 9th in runs scored, but given that they’re fifth in the league in slugging average and in on-base percentage, they have the makings of at least a league-average offense. The Royals have won with less.
Zack Greinke gets all the press, and deservedly so. But the Royals have played better than .500 ball in the games that The Big Grein does not start. They lead the American League in Beane Count, a statistic that Rob Neyer invented years ago that distills a team’s performance to the two most immutable categories of the game, homers and walks. And yes, Rob’s put one foot on the bandwagon.
For all the talk about how the Royals have been winning games they never would have won in the past, the fact that the Royals won a couple of close games wasn’t definitive proof that they were a good team. Those of you who have been reading for a while already know this, but the hallmark of a good team is not the ability to win the close games ? it’s the ability to win the blowouts. Winning one-run games is mostly a matter of luck; winning the eight-run games is mostly a matter of talent.
What was meaningful about the win against the Twins on Saturday, or against the White Sox on Tuesday, wasn’t that it they were the kinds of wins that characterized good teams; it was that they weren’t the kinds of losses that characterized bad teams. Specifically, bad Royals teams. More specifically, pretty much every Royals team from 1995 to 2007.
So we had, I thought, established over the last week that the Royals were not a bad team. But I looked at last night’s game as a litmus test for whether the Royals were a good team. Against another first-place team that seemed to be playing over its head, against a soft-tossing finesse pitcher who has sucked pretty much non-stop since the end of 2007, a good team would bust out the whooping sticks early and often.
Carlos Silva is exactly the kind of control artist who always seems to throw his best games against the Royals: before last night, he had a 4.10 ERA in 14 career starts against KC, and had walked just five batters in 83 career innings.
The verdict? The Royals grounded into two double plays and left five men on base in the first four innings ? and still led 8-0. Sidney Ponson did his best Brian Bannister impression, and the three worst pitchers on the Royals’ roster held the Mariners to one run.
And that’s why I’m here to tell you: game on. This team is good, this team is for real, and it’s time to commit fully and hang on tight all season long. I’m not saying the Royals are going to win the division. But I’m saying that from this moment on, every game has playoff implications.
“Wait a minute,” some of you are saying, “how is this any different than 2003?” To which I can only say, “I knew 2003. 2003 was a friend of mine. This team, sir, is no 2003.”
Y’all remember 2003, don’t you? Tony Pena tossing a coin to decide whether Runelvys Hernandez or Jeremy Affeldt would start on Opening Day? Ken Harvey hitting walkoff homers? Mike MacDougal walking a tightrope every ninth inning? Everything about that season was surreal from the start. NO ONE thought, prior to the season, that the Royals had any hope of contention. Then they started 9-0, and 16-3, and even then the feeling wasn’t “we’re going to win”, it was “we’re winning!” The emotions that I recall were more about living in the moment than in expecting the winning ways to continue. They continued a lot longer than we expected, and when the Royals went into the All-Star break leading the division by seven games, you could actually start to believe that the magic might last into October. But it was still clear that they were winning with magic.
This year, even before the season began people around the game were talking about the Royals as a sleeper contender, to the point where it actually got annoying ? the New York Times predicted the Royals to win the division. Those predictions weren’t made because people thought the Royals were well-versed in sorcery; they were made because people thought the Royals had a lot of talent.
Which they do. The Royals’ second-best starter is better than anyone in the rotation in 2003 ? or in any year from 1998 to 2006. Their closer is one of the very best in baseball. Their leadoff hitter has a .363 OBP and catches everything in centerfield. Their DH does little but hit homers ? but he does hit homers. Their first baseman is hitting .276/.370/.425 and is just scratching the surface of his potential. Their second baseman, batting 7th, is hitting .359 ? and while no one thinks he’s a .359 hitter, a lot of people think he’s a .310 hitter. They have Zack Greinke. They have a pitcher who’s 5-0, 1.13 in Omaha and can’t break into the rotation. None of their players are pregnant.
The Royals are 17-11, and they’ve outscored their opponents by 30 runs, which projects to a…17-11 record. They’re winning even with one of their best players on the DL. In the last week, they’ve won games by bashing 11 extra-base hits around the park; by scoring eight runs in five innings off a pair of Quadruple-A pitchers (who were both sent down to Triple-A immediately after the game); by outlasting the Twins on the road with an 11th-inning rally triggered by four walks; by storming back from a 4-0 deficit after six innings with a five-run seventh; by rallying from a 5-1 deficit to the White Sox to win in 11 innings, even after the home plate umpire blew a call on the potential go-ahead run in regulation; and beaten Carlos Silva like the rented mule he is.
Oh, and somewhere in between Greinke threw another shutout.
And in the process of writing this, the Royals have won their sixth straight game. A night after their fifth starter allowed one run in 7.1 innings, their fourth starter throws six shutout innings, striking out seven. Tomorrow the nominal ace of the staff takes the mound. And then the day after that, The Greatest Show in Baseball rolls into Anaheim.
So yeah: it’s on. It’s most definitely on. The Royals are 18-11, they lead the division by 2.5 games, and unlike 2003, I’m not even excited about how they have played. I’m excited by how I think they will play. I think they will play well enough to contend, and maybe even win, the division. I think that it’s going to be the most enjoyable summer for Kansas City sports in a few decades. I think that many of the 32,713 kids who came out to the park this afternoon will be fans for life.
I think that the city is ready to embrace this team. Last night’s game garnered a 7.5 rating, the highest in the history of Fox Sports Kansas City. The previous highest-rated game was…the game before, with a 6.4 rating.
I think that we’re going to have a lot of fun over the next few months. I think that at some point, someone is going to see me walking around suburban Chicago with my Greinke jersey on and accuse me of being a bandwagon fan. I think that my wife is going to feel like a single mother in late September and October.
I think all of this will happen, but I don’t know. But I know one thing.
It’s on. It’s most definitely on.
This post was edited on 5/8 9:52 AM by Steve Zissou
Nosotros creamos!!!!1
How long has Rand been covering the Royals? Gotta be almost 30 years now.
How long has Rand been covering the Royals? Gotta be almost 30 years now.
Three encouraging developments as of May 8:
1. Royals just held the Western Division leader, Seattle, to two runs in two games.
2. Three of the wins in the six-game winning streak were produced by the bottom two spots in the pitching rotation.
3. Billy Butler is starting to hit. (And he's playing good defense as well.)
1. Royals just held the Western Division leader, Seattle, to two runs in two games.
2. Three of the wins in the six-game winning streak were produced by the bottom two spots in the pitching rotation.
3. Billy Butler is starting to hit. (And he's playing good defense as well.)
Sub shop mixes firehouse theme with Royals history
Sub shop mixes firehouse theme with Royals historyLegends at Village West. The Kansas City Royals’ 1985 World Series win is commemorated at a new restaurant east of Kauffman Stadium.
Dave Johnson, franchise owner for the new Firehouse Subs location, commissioned a mural showing Hall of Famer George Brett blasting a St. Louis Cardinals mascot with a fire hose while Negro Leagues star Buck O’Neil blows away a Toronto Blue Jay.
Johnson, who counts some Royals players among customers at the 4167 Sterling Ave. location in Blue Ridge Crossing, said he used to sell restaurant equipment to Firehouse franchisees. He was impressed enough to check out the company and then impressed enough to quit his job and become a franchisee.
“The concept was neat and clean and the food was incredible,” Johnson said.
Sub shop mixes firehouse theme with Royals historyLegends at Village West. The Kansas City Royals’ 1985 World Series win is commemorated at a new restaurant east of Kauffman Stadium.
Dave Johnson, franchise owner for the new Firehouse Subs location, commissioned a mural showing Hall of Famer George Brett blasting a St. Louis Cardinals mascot with a fire hose while Negro Leagues star Buck O’Neil blows away a Toronto Blue Jay.
Johnson, who counts some Royals players among customers at the 4167 Sterling Ave. location in Blue Ridge Crossing, said he used to sell restaurant equipment to Firehouse franchisees. He was impressed enough to check out the company and then impressed enough to quit his job and become a franchisee.
“The concept was neat and clean and the food was incredible,” Johnson said.
Fantastic win last night, I'm glad I didn't turn the TV off and that it happened during half of the NBA game so I wasn't tempted to watch it instead.
Hopefully this gives us the spark we need to start winning games again.
Hopefully this gives us the spark we need to start winning games again.
Just watched the highlights! I think Meche goes tonight and I'd say he's due for a solid outing.
I didn't get to hear George's tirade at the local media the other day. I wonder if there's a soundbite somewhere on the intertronz.
I didn't get to hear George's tirade at the local media the other day. I wonder if there's a soundbite somewhere on the intertronz.
That was before a KC area charity golf event early in the morning. If it was after playing I'd bet a bunch of money that he was loaded, knowing that it was early in the morning I'd only bet 1/2 of a bunch of money that he was loaded.
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